‘It was just a matter of not falling off’: Cheltenham Gold Cup winner is a class apart, in a race tinged with sadness

Rarely does one horse make winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup look quite so easy, but Gaelic Warrior and Paul Townend powered home to win jump racing’s blue riband contest by a breathtaking eight lengths on Friday (13 March).

This was a record-equalling fifth Gold Cup success for legendary trainer Willie Mullins and he now joins Arkle’s trainer Tom Dreaper in the Gold Cup history books. Gaelic Warrior’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup victory also completed a rare hat-trick for the Paul Townend-Willie Mullins partnership as they’d also landed Tuesday’s Unibet Champion Hurdle with mega mare Lossiemouth and Wednesday’s Bet MGM Queen Mother Champion Chase with Il Etait Temps.

Gaelic Warrior: Cheltenham Gold Cup winner is a class apart

This year’s blue riband race at Cheltenham racecourse had been one of the most talked about sporting events of recent times, with an extra tier of excitement building in a seemingly wide open contest.

But Gaelic Warrior was always travelling ominously well and he and Paul Townend – looking like they were out for an afternoon hack rather than racing in the Cheltenham Gold Cup – hit the front turning for home and the race was all but over. Their closest challengers were co-favourite Jango Baie (Nico de Boinville) and last year’s Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin another two lengths further back in third.

“Winning the Gold Cup just gets better and better – I’m speechless,” said Paul Townend, who becomes the first jockey to ride five Cheltenham Gold Cup winners. “I’m so lucky to be on board Gaelic Warrior. I wasn’t going to slow him down any more at the third last but I wasn’t going to commit him either. After that, it was just a matter of not falling off down the home straight. But winning Gold Cups isn’t easy, I promise you.”

An extraordinary perfomance

Willie Mullins described Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Gaelic Warrior’s performance as “extraordinary”.

“The way he did it was just spectacular,” he said. “He got everything right and just put in a tremendous round of jumping.”

On the morning of the Gold Cup, I had watched Gaelic Warrior out on the gallops and not only is he an absolute beast of a horse up close, but he absolutely bursts with exuberance. Townend said, “He pulled a bit early on in the race, but that was well-behaved for Gaelic Warrior!”

The eight-year-old’s owner Rich Ricci, winning his first Gold Cup, revealed he began crying after the second-last fence.

“I’ve been trying to win this race for 21 years,” he said.

A very sad postscript to this year’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup was the fatal collapse of chasing legend Envoi Allen after the race. The multiple-Grade One and Cheltenham Festival-winning 12-year-old, trained by Henry de Bromhead, had been due to retire after Friday’s contest.

A spokesperson for the racecourse said: “Envoi Allen was a supremely talented horse and our heartfelt condolences are with all his connections.”

You can read the full report including insight, interviews and analysis from Gold Cup-winning jockey Davy Russell in next week’s H&H magazine, in the shops Thursday 19 March.

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